Orca Shrugged
"Orca Shrugged" is the fifth episode of the fifth season of the FX original series Sons of Anarchy, and the series' fifty-eighth episode overall. Summary The club votes on getting into the companion business with Nero. Meanwhile, Jax begins to build bridges by getting Jacob Hale's Charming Heights development back on track. The Gallindo/Irish Kings meeting finally happens. Gemma confronts her son over her relationship with Nero. Roosevelt's wife shoots herself while she is pushed to the floor during a home invasion. A transsexual hooker does a favor for SAMCRO. Plot Jax lies in bed with Tara as his voice over relates how hard it is not to hate when people break your spirit and take pleasure in watching you bleed. "But I know what hate does to a man, tears him apart, makes him into something he's not. Turns him into something he promised himself he'd never become." He's trying not to cave under the weight of awful things he feels in his heart. He feels like he spends every day cleaning up from the one before. Gemma smokes weed in her house as a naked woman sleeps nearby. Clay cleans his guns. Jax leaves Tara a note, saying he couldn't sleep and goes riding. Jax writes to his sons, telling them every day is a new box and they must decide whether it's a gift or a coffin. Jax, Bobby and Chibs find the mayor, Jacob Hale Jr. (Jeff Kober), in a diner. He's reading about the home invasions. Jax mentions the old Elk's Lodge Hale owns and says they want to lease it for an escort service. Hale tells them no way. Jax takes out minutes from the last six city council meetings, Hale's already lost his investors and Charming Heights is about to revert to agriculture. Jax knows Hale's one vote shy on keeping it. "We're going to make your dream come true," Jax tells him. In the clubhouse, Jax says the gun deal with the Irish is set to go. Gogo (Chris Browning) and Frankie Diamonds (Chuck Zito) are worried about the club being blamed for the home invasions. Jax tells them Pope will put a stop to it if it's his people. Chibs reminds them the real problem is the coke running. Jax tells them he's looking for other ways to earn and mentions he made a deal with Nero's escort service to use the Cara Cara porn actresses who'll bring premium prices. It's Jax's deal now but he wants it to be club business. They won't make as much as running coke but it'll get them out of Fed's crosshairs. Jax suggests they wait and see how it goes, but Clay calls for a vote, it passes unanimously. They're in the companion business. The guys leave and Jax tells Clay that Nero won't be with Gemma anymore. Outside, Gemma asks Jax about Nero and he tells her not to get attached. Tara has a check-up for her hand and the doctor is optimistic about her being able to resume performing surgery. The club rolls up to their meet with Galen (Timothy V. Murphy) and the IRA. Clay takes off his O2 tank to meet Galen, who immediately chafes that Clay isn't president anymore. Jax asks if there's a problem. Galen is mad that Jax got Father Kellan Ashby killed in Belfast ("Sons of Anarchy: Bainne (#3.11)"). He decks Jax. Jax welcomes the fight. Jax takes off his rings, Galen takes off his shirt and they go bare knuckle boxing. Galen gets some good cuts in on Jax's face and Jax lays a few gut punches. The cartel pulls up but they keep fighting as Romeo Parada (Danny Trejo) says he didn't know there was going to be entertainment. Everybody watches. Chuckie, "marketing his new business," brings a gift bag from Uncle Fudgie's delicious fudge, to gigantic insurance salesman Allen Biacone (Brad Grunberg). He says he's diabetic, but takes it anyway "for the clients." Chuckie gives Tig the thumbs up outside. As soon as Chuckie leaves, Biacone starts stuffing it all in his mouth. Back at the meet, the fight seems to have cleared the air. Galindo cartel turns over payment for the current shipment and half for the next. They want a drop every two weeks, Clay and Galen agree. Galen insists on trying the guns out and blasts several of the club's bikes to smithereens with a mounted M2 machine gun. Chibs rages, but Jax walks out calmly, saying they'll send the bill for the bikes. In town, Jax and the guys go to Biancone's office. He's passed out. He ate all the fudge. They figure they have four hours. Bobby checks with Jax that he wants to go through with things. "It's a risky bet on a horse we hate," he says. They start taking off Biancone's tie. Gemma goes to Diosa, checking up on Nero. She finds everyone packing up. She confesses to setting Tara on Carla. She asks why he's shutting her out. He tells her to talk to Jax. She gets angry when he won't tell her why. She grabs him and he grabs back. They end up close together and he tells her can't, he made a promise. She knows he means Jax. Back at Biancone's office, they open the door for someone with very large breasts. It's transsexual hooker Venus Van Damme (Walton Goggins, Kurt Sutter's old pal from "The Shield" days). "Thanks for coming," Jax says. "Not yet," Venus says. Meanwhile, Biancone is passed out on a table, naked except for leather-studded bikini, with a ball gag in his mouth. Tig is absolutely transfixed by Venus, but she whispers to him it's not going to happen. Gemma goes to the club house and finds a Sheriff's Deputy waiting. Clay explains that they arrested some guys for the home invasions and need her to ID stuff to make an arrest. Filthy Phil (Christopher Douglas Reed) comes out with a box from Skeeter the mortician for Jax that he says is important. Gemma says she'll take it to him. Back in the insurance office, Venus, in full black latex catsuit, straddles the unconscious insurance salesman, posing as Juice takes photos and the guys watch in a combination of horror and awe, Tig transfixed. They see a kid coming and pull him in. He quickly figures out they're Sons and they're blackmailing Biancone. He's Devin Price (Marshall Allman), Allen's 21-year-old stepson, and he wants to get in on the blackmail. He hates him. Venus intercedes and presents a solution, offering Devin her services. Jax assures Devin it doesn't mean he's gay, they've all been there. The Sons play along. Devin can't believe his good fortune. Tig is unbelievably jealous. While Devin waits in back, Jax promises Venus another $2,000 for Devin. Sheriff Eli Roosevelt (Rockmond Dunbar) has lunch with his wife Rita (Merle Dandridge) in his office, basking in the glow of her new pregnancy. Gemma looks at the items in the Polaroid but none of its hers. Roosevelt has to rush off when the suspects in holding start fighting his deputy. Jax settles things up with Devin, explaining that if he talks, the photos Venus took while servicing him will go public. Venus kisses Jax on the lips and saunters off. They roll Biancone, now fully dressed, back behind his desk but he starts to wake up. When he does, he bites the first thing he sees, which happens to be Tig's butt. They knock Biancone unconscious to pry him loose, but Tig's left with a bloody hole on his butt cheek. Back at the club, Jax asks Tara if she can stitch Tig up. With her busted hand, Bobby says they can help. Gemma confronts Jax outside about Nero. She accuses Jax and Tara of shutting her out, but he says she's doing that herself getting wasted every night. She thinks he blames her for JT. He says he might be having some trouble separating her from that hate. "You can't hate me Jackson, you're the only thing I still love," she pleads. He says again that getting involved with Nero is a bad idea. Tara struggles to stitch up Tig so Chibs takes over. Tig doesn't mind too much, he's very high. Jax finds Jacob Hale and presents him with photos of Biancone with Venus. He offers to send the photos to Biancone with the suggestion that he change his vote on Charming Heights. Jax also offers to get Hale a new investor, the biggest developer in Oakland. "Whether you like it or not, there is no one in this town that can help you more than me. I ain't Clay, I ain't (Elliott) Oswald's boy," Jax says. Gemma waits for Tara after she patches up Tig. Tara's angry she couldn't even do that. "Well, we all got a lot of healing to do," Gemma says. Tara tells Gemma she didn't tell Jax about beating Carla to a pulp. She's freaked out by how easy it is to go to extremes. "Not a lot of grey in this life, sweetheart. Extremes become average," Gemma says. "I'm not sure I find that comforting," Tara says. "You're not supposed to." Back at Charming PD, Roosevelt tells Clay that the black suspect's apartments were packed with stolen goods. In her bedroom, Rita Roosevelt wakes up late at night when she hears a noise. She grabs her gun and dials 911. As she's on the phone, a masked man kicks in her door. She fires but misses. She runs, but another masked man runs in. Someone fires and she ends up shot in the stomach. The three masked intruders run. Late at night, Gemma drops off the box for Jax which Filthy Phil had given her. Tara puts it on the kitchen table, still unopened. She asks Gemma to feed Thomas for her. Gemma thanks her. Tara lights up a joint. Rita Roosevelt is wheeled into surgery with her husband at her side. He asks a nurse for the skin underneath her fingernails, thinking of the job, but holding back tears. Late at night, Jacob Hale meets with Jax and gives him the lease agreement on the old Elk's Lodge. Jax gets Hale's go ahead to blackmail Biancone. Jax comes home to find Tara asleep on the couch. He checks her healing hand and covers her up. He finds his mom asleep in the back room with his son asleep on her chest. He covers them up, too. He finds the box on his kitchen table with his name on it. He slits open the tape and takes out a mini cooler. He opens it up and finds a boob and a finger, to help convince Nero's guys that they killed Emma Jean as they promised. The previous day's mess cleaned up. Church meetings Jax: Alright, the meeting's all set with Galen and the cartel. Finally get this big gun deal locked down. Make green and brown happy. Clay: It's currently black that concerns me. Frankie Diamonds: Everyone else too. People are putting this home invasion shit on the club. GoGo: Yeah, locals are very skittish, man. Jax: We can't control what people think. Charming's love and hate swings back and forth on us. It always has. Clay: Be aware, son. As long as these attacks keep happening and that hate swings that far out, we may never get the love back. Tig: You guys are all full of shit. Town knows these attacks are not on us. Juice: That's right. Bobby: True. Frankie Diamonds: You calling us liars, Tiggy? Chibs: No, no, what he's saying is (to the 3 former nomads) you, you and you, don't know shit about our town. Greg the Peg: Knows Roosevelt's gonna be up our ass! Jax: I'm sitting down with Pope as soon as he's back in town. If it's black, it'll stop. End of discussion. Chibs: It ain't the attacks that we should be worried about, boys. It's the coke mule. We gotta figure out that end-game. Jax: He's right. Frankie Diamonds: So you want out? Chibs: I wanna stay alive! We're down 3 brothers since this started. Tig: Maybe you forgot about that little truck burning incident? Happened out on 108. Jax: Look, business with the cartel does bring in a lot of cash. It also brings in a lot of heat, man. We voted this in knowing it would be short-term. I'm also looking for other ways to earn. Steady cash without the risk. Bobby: It's pink, wet, tastes like sunshine. Happy: Pussy. Tig: Or Italian ice, I'm okay with both. Doesn't matter. (everyone laughs) Jax: Nero Padilla. Guy that gave us safe haven before we went to county. He's been running a legit escort service for 5 years. He recently got pushed out of Stockton due to our complication. He's looking for a new place to set up shop. I've made a deal with him, I'm gonna be his partner. I'm gonna tap into Caracara, add some star power to his stable. Clay: What's that look like for the table? Jax: Right now, I'm fronting the merger, but I want this to be a club business. Clay: You trust this guy? Jax: I do. He's straight up about profit. Filthy Phil: What kind of money is it? Jax: It ain't as lucrative as hauling coke, but it'll keep us comfortable. Bobby: And out of fed crosshairs. Jax: When it's up and running, take a look. You guys want in, we'll vote it. Clay: Why wait? Let's vote it now. Jax: Alright. Everyone in favor of moving into the companion business, yea. Everyone: Yea. Chibs: Aye. Juice: Hell yeah. Jax: Good. We'll figure out percentages when I nail shit down with Nero. (hits gavel) (everyone gets up and leaves) Filthy Phil: Chucky, what are you cooking in there? It smells good. (Clay remains at table) Jax: I thought I'd get resistance about Diosa. Clay: Why? Because your new partner's bedding my wife? Jax: That stops. It's wrong. Clay: Yeah it is. (leaves, followed by Jax) ---- Credits Main Cast * Charlie Hunnam as Jackson 'Jax' Teller * Katey Sagal as Gemma Teller Morrow * Mark Boone Junior as Bobby 'Elvis' Munson * Dayton Callie as Wayne Unser (credit only) * Kim Coates as Alex 'Tig' Trager * Tommy Flanagan as Filip 'Chibs' Telford * Theo Rossi as Juan Carlos 'Juice' Ortiz * Maggie Siff as Tara Knowles * Ron Perlman as Clarence 'Clay' Morrow Supporting Cast Special guest stars *Danny Trejo as Romero 'Romeo' Parada *Benito Martinez as Luis Torres *Rockmond Dunbar as Eli Roosevelt *Jimmy Smits as Neron 'Nero' Padilla *Walton Goggins as Venus Van Dam Guest stars *Michael Ornstein as Chuck Marstein *David Labrava as Happy *Jeff Kober as Jacob Hale Jr. *Chuck Zito as Frankie Diamonds *Marshall Allman as Devin Price *Brad Grunberg as Allen Biacone *Chris Browning as GoGo *Merle Dandridge as Rita Roosevelt *Timothy V. Murphy as Galen O'Shay *Kurt Yaeger as Greg the Peg *Christopher Douglas Reed as Philip 'Filthy Phil' Russell *LaMonica Garrett as Deputy Sheriff Cane *Matt Orduna as Dr. Balian Co-stars *Sheila Shaw as Nurse *Andy Spencer as Black Banger Notes *Walton Goggins (Venus Van Dam) played Detective Shane Vendrell in . Goggins is the sixth alumni who worked on The Shield where Kurt Sutter served as an Executive Producer before creating Sons of Anarchy after Jay Karnes (Agent Josh Kohn/Dutch Wagenbach), Kenny Johnson (Herman Kozik/Curtis Lemansky), David Marciano (Chicken Man/Steve Billings), David Rees Snell (Agent Grad Nicholas/Ronnie Gardocki) and Benito Martinez (Luis Torres/David Aceveda). Featured Music * Shooter Jennings - "Wild and Lonesome" * Jimmie Wood's Parish - "The Promised Land" * The Sheepdogs - "Slim Pickens" (Jax and Galen fight) * Bob Neuwirth - "Good Intentions" * Sweetwater & The Satisfaction - "You Do You" * CC Coletti - "Heaven Is In Your Mind" * Audra Mae & The Forest Rangers - "The Unclouded Day" Category:Season 5 episodes Category:Season 5